The Best of Times and The Worst of Times
Posted by Raphy on March 29, 2009
Since 1954 there have been 43 instances where a player has started at least 100 of his team's wins in a season.
Five players have each accounted for 2 of those seasons.
Year Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+ Brooks Robinson 1969 106 Ind. Games Brooks Robinson 1970 105 Ind. Games Pete Rose 1970 100 Ind. Games Pete Rose 1975 108 Ind. Games Andruw Jones 1998 103 Ind. Games Andruw Jones 1999 103 Ind. Games Derek Jeter 1998 104 Ind. Games Derek Jeter 2002 100 Ind. Games Miguel Tejada 2001 100 Ind. Games Miguel Tejada 2002 102 Ind. Games
Since 1954 there have been 27 times when a player has started 100 losses in one season.
Only 2 players have managed to do it twice.
Year Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+ Frank Thomas 1954 100 Ind. Games Frank Thomas 1962 109 Ind. Games Billy Williams 1962 102 Ind. Games Billy Williams 1966 103 Ind. Games
There have also been 3 players who have pulled off one of each:
Year Games Link to Individual Games -----------------+----+-----+------------------------- Rocky Colavito 1961 100 (wins) Ind. Games Rocky Colavito 1964 101 (losses) Ind. Games Eddie Murray 1979 102 (wins) Ind. Games Eddie Murray 1988 107 (losses) Ind. Games Ichiro Suzuki 2001 107 (wins) Ind. Games Ichiro Suzuki 2008 100 (losses) Ind. Games
Ichiro - Welcome to the club.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:46 pm
One interesting observation is how fast the Seattle Mariners fell - just 7 years after a record 116-win season, they were in the 100-loss cellar. The Mariners actually were in the AL West cellar just 3 years after that 116-win season (by 2004), and avoided the 100-loss stigma by just 1 game (63-99). Funny things happen after fire-sales...
Rocky experienced those highs and lows in a span of 4 seasons, but that was because he switched teams from the runner-up Tigers in 1961 to the cellar-dwelling Kansas City A's in 1964 (who would have another 100-loss season the next year).
Eddie Murray experienced those extremes with the same team as well (the Orioles), but it only happened after a fairly steady 9-year decline from one of the best records in franchise history to the worst record of their Baltimore years.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I found it interesting that all 3 guys are very good players. Of course, anyone who starts that many games in two different seasons at least a few years apart is probably at least a decent player.